


Where The Heart Is

by FallenIsel (IseliaDragonwill)



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Crimson Flower route spoilers, Dedue Week (Fire Emblem), I think it's a happy ending, Introspection, M/M, Prompt Fill, your mileage may vary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22156948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IseliaDragonwill/pseuds/FallenIsel
Summary: For Dedue Week, Day 2: HomeYou don't always know what you have until it's gone. Sometimes it was by your side all along.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Dedue Molinaro
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Where The Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> For Dedue Week, Day 2: Home
> 
> I'm super nervous to post this for a few reasons. First, I haven't written a proper fic and posted it on AO3 since last May. Second, this is my first FE3H fic. Finally...I haven't actually played the Blue Lions route. My characterization probably isn't perfect, but please be gentle. I just was drawn to this pairing and fell for it hard. I needed to write *something*. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope this is alright. Spoilers for the CF route ahead.
> 
> Kudos and comments are love <3

Just as it began on a bloody battlefield, so too would it end. What was once forged in fire–burning for the vengeance of souls too-soon departed and innocence lost, for the understanding born of a bone-deep anguish they wished they’d never known, and for the promise of devotion that quietly bloomed into a reason for life and love without their notice as they toiled and fought for their ideals–now lay extinguished under the cold grey of a rainy sky. How fitting. Souls that burned so bright weren’t meant to last so long, and by the Goddess had Dimitri burned bright.

He could rest now. Though the warmth of him faded and returned to the earth in splashes of red on the wet stone, Dedue clung to what was left, one of the few selfish wants he’d ever allowed himself in all their years together. Was Dimitri laughing at him, he wondered; his expression tinged with that tired affection he often wore when trying to convince Dedue of how he was so much more than just a vassal, but his equal and his friend? Or had the springtime sky of his eyes clouded over, fraught with grey and hurt?

‘Is this what it takes for you to want for yourself, Dedue?’

And maybe there’s a cruel truth to Dimitri’s question. Maybe there’s a lesson he should have learned while Dimitri was still alive–that not all things last forever. After all of their run-ins with death, Dedue had thought he understood that well. Every time he tended Dimitri’s wounds with his own battle-scarred hands, he thanked any gods that would listen for the life that still flowed in Dimitri’s veins and perhaps, selfishly, for his own–that he may continue to protect his king, just as his king had once protected him, so long ago. 

Dedue brushed a matted clump of bloodstained hair from Dimitri’s face. There had been a time when he dreamed of going home, rebuilding what was left of his people and their culture. Important as it was to him, Dedue knew it stemmed in part from a desire to maintain that illusion of distance between what Dimitri said he was and what he never dared to be. Perhaps it would have been better that way, throwing himself into work to forget the future he...they could have had, to forget that Dimitri was still out there forging his dreams. 

To forget how much he loved him.

It would have hurt the both of them, going their separate ways, but that hardly mattered now. As Dimitri grew cold in his arms–the possibility of a future cruelly wrenched from his grasp, just as the kingdom he pledged to better from the time he was a boy, struggling to deal with a tragedy beyond his years–Dedue realized he had been home all along.

But now home lay beyond the bonds of life. Somehow he’d let propriety get in the way of what was most important to him. So many times, Dimitri had tried to make him see the folly of his ways. So many times, Dedue had stood on ceremony to both their detriments. He regretted it. His only solace was in knowing that he would join Dimitri soon and could apologize for what a fool he had been. If his fading senses were anything to go by, it wouldn’t be long. 

“It may be impossible, Your Majesty, but that I could see your smile one more time...”

For all the years the dead had haunted him, they were naught but specters frozen in time and unmoved by pleas of the living. Dedue knew this. He had spent so long waiting for a sign that those who were lost had heard his vows to avenge their deaths and keep their spirits alive in his heart, that he had given up hope his words would ever reach them, though he still tried. So when the rains ceased to fall from the heavens above and a ray of sunshine broke through the clouds, alighting Dedue’s face with the warmth of a lover’s caress, he thought for sure he must be dreaming.

It couldn’t be him. The dead had never listened before. Why should Dimitri, of all people, hear his dying wish and grant what he most wanted, even after he had failed to keep him safe? 

Still, Dedue wanted to believe. He wanted to follow that sunlight home.

‘Then come with me, Dedue. I’ll wait for you as long as you need, but there’s no reason to stay here.’

He was right. The only things left were pieces of shattered dreams and a future that was no longer theirs to forge. Surely, that meant he could…

Let go.

‘Forgive me, Dimitri. It was never my intention to keep you waiting.’

As his face came into view, Dimitri reminded Dedue of spring–bright and warm, the blue of his eyes brimming with the promise of new beginnings. ‘How long has it been since you called me by my name?’

‘Far too long,’ Dedue conceded with an apologetic smile.

Dimitri blinked at him. There seemed to be something on the tip of his tongue, but he shook his head and held out his hand instead. Dedue didn’t miss the flicker of hesitation in his eyes, how he trembled as if wondering whether he had pushed too far, risking yet another denial of what he yearned for so deeply.

‘Shall we go home then, Dedue?’

The sound of acceptance was a quiet one, but rich with affection as Dedue entwined Dimitri’s fingers in his own and finally took his place at his side. ‘I am home. So long as I’m with you.’ 

On a faraway battlefield in the pouring rain, Dedue slumped forward, cradling Dimitri’s lifeless body to his chest and wearing a smile as he breathed his last.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/iseliadragonwill) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/FallenIsel). Or if you prefer, you can follow my [Art Twitter](https://twitter.com/FallenIsel) for all the creative stuff and none of my babble.
> 
> I don't bite and would love to talk to more people about FE3H or my fics. T_T If you'd prefer to remain anonymous, I also have CuriousCat: https://curiouscat.me/FallenIsel


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